Tubular tramway



3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(N0 Mdel.)

. A. E. BROWN.

TUBULAR TRAMWAY.

Patented Mar. 3, 1885.

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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. A. E. BROWN.

TUBULAR TRAMWAY.

Patented Mar. 3, 1885.

(M) Model.) 3 sheetsfsheet 3.

A. E. BROWN.

TUBULAR TRAMWAY.

No. 313,285. Patented Mar. 3, 1885.

' T rWEN OFL Hi ly.

TFUNETED dramas Fares? Grates.

ALEXANDER E. BROlVN, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

TUBULAR TRAMVVAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 313,285, dated March 3, 1885.

Application filed December 29, 1894. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER E. BROWN, of Cleveland, in the county of Guyahoga and State'of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Tubular Tramway; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this application.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in that kind or class of tramways which are designed for carrying ore and other products of mines over rough or hilly country,where it is either impracticable or too expensive to run surface railroads.

Heretofore, so far as my knowledge extends, this kind of tramways has been made of endless wire ropes or cables arranged either to travel, and thus carry the load -'containing buckets or receptacles depending therefrom and secured thereto, or arranged to act as stationary roadways, upon which conveying-machines with depending buckets or load-carrying receptacles have been caused to ride or travel by means of a driving or pulling cable operated by suitable machinery in a manner well known to thoseskilled inthe art. In all such contrivances, however, there are to be found serious practical difficulties and objections, among which may be mentioned the rapid wear and stretch of the cables, whether stationary or traveling; the rapid destruction of the sheaves ofthe conveying-machines when stationary cables are used; the practical difiiculties of successfully carrying the load-supporting devices over the supporting-piers where the cables are made to travel; the great stretch or expansion and contraction of the wire cables (whether stationary or traveling) and the practical difficulties in taking up the stretch and compensating for the contraction and distention; the liability of derailment or detachment of the load-carrying contrivances by the rapid and uneven or j erkyvertical vibrations of the cables as the load-weights depending therefrom approach, pass over, and pass away from the stationary points of support at the piers; and the great difficulties and expense in the construction of such tramways, owing to the fact that the heavy wire cables must be transported over the rough country in which the apparatus is to be constructed in comparatively long lengths.

I propose to overcome all these and other practical objections to the use of such tramways for rough and hilly countries as have heretofore been used, and at the same time provide for use a tramway which shall be much more durable, strong, economic, and simple of construction, and which will render more efficient service for all the purposes for which tramways in such localities are usually employed; and to such main ends and objects my invention may be said to consist, prima rily, in a tramway composed of a tubular railway or support for any suitable conveyingmachines, and, secondarily, in the novel features of construction of the parts and the novel modes of combining them, which will be hereinafter more fully explained,and which will be more particularly defined in the claims of this specification.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my invention relates to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe it more fully, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, which make part of this specification, and in which I have illustrated my invention carried out in that general form and with those details of construction which are the best now known to me, and under which I have so far successfully practiced my improvement.

In the drawings, Figure l is atop or plan view. Fig.2 is aside view or elevation showing on a small scale a tubular tramway constructed over a hillylocality, andinvolving the several features of my invention. Fig. 3 is a detail side view (on an enlarged scale) of one of the pier-supports and top couplings. Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the same, showing also a portion of one of the sheaves of a conveyingmachine mounted on a tubular tramway, and part of the safety-guard of the conveying-machine. Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view (on the same scale) of one of the tube-couplers. Fig. 6 is an end view of the devices seen at Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a detail view showing a modification of one of the devices attached to the tops of the piers, and carrying or support ing the tubular tramway, and also showing portions of one of the sheaves and safety- IOO guards of a conveying-machine mounted on a tramway. Figs. 8 and 9 show, respectively in top View and side view, another form of pier attachment and two supporting and coupling contrivances. Fig. 10 is a top view, and Fig. 11 is a side view, of still another form of device for supporting and coupling together the tubes at the vicinity of a pier. Fig. 12

of the boxes or stands, such as are bolted to the tops of the piers, and in which are mounted that form of tube-supporting devices seen at Figs. 10 and 11.

In the several figures the same parts will be found designated by the same letters of reference.

At Figs. 1 and 2, A represents a tubular tramway, mounted upon a series of piers, O C, &c., and arranged as shown, so as to compose two parallel tracks extending along on either side of the series of piers, from the pier at the lowermost locality or point of discharge to the pier-house D at the upper terminus ofthe road, and joined together at the upper and lower termini of the road by semicircular portions, which complete the continuity of the track, so that it forms, so to speak, an endless rai1- wav.

E illustrates the source from which the ore or coal to be transported is supplied or 1oaded into the buckets of the conveying-machines, while F represents a receiving-hopper and chute arranged on the dock H, and from which the ore or coal is shown as being discharged into the vessel or othermeans of transport,G.

On the tubular rails A of the tramway are mounted, so as to travel freely, a series of conveying-machines, d. These machines may be of any approved construction,with suitable grooved wheels or sheaves to run on the tubes A, and provided with automatically dumping or other buckets, c, and they are caused to travel by means of the endless cable f,passing around the horizontally-arranged wheels B B, and driven by the usual engine and machinery of hoisting and conveying contrivances, illus trated as located at a, within the upper pier, D, of the railway.

In practice the tubular tramway A may be composed of one-inch gas-pipe of suitable lengths to be conveniently transported, and coupled together in a manner to be presently explained, and the piers G O or tramway composed of such pipe may be situated so far apart as to make these spans, say, about one hundred and sixty feet each in length. With such spans of one-inch gas-pipe in suitable lengths and coupled, the sag, I calculate, will be only about one-fiftieth of thelength of the span. or, say, not more than-three feet in each length of one hundred and sixty feet of railway; and to both prevent any bend or strain in the piping at the points of support occurring at the top of each pier, I propose to couple the ends of the tubes approaching each pier Irom opposite directions onto a metallic supporting-stand-such as shown,for instance,

shows, respectively in top and end view, one

, cylindrical exteriors of said tubes.

at Figs. 3 and 4, which presents a curved surface at its topmost portion corresponding to what would be a gradual or easy bend of the piping over the top of the pier, and which also serves as a coupling between the adjacent ends of the tubular portions, connecting the tubes in such a manner as that the intervening exposed cylindrical surface of said metallic stand shall constitute practically a continuation of the cylindrical exterior surfaces of the tubes themselves. This novel feature in the construction of my tubular tramway will be best understood by special reference to Fig. 3, where it will be understood that the castmetal stand or rail supporting device A (which is supposed to be securely bolted to the top of one of the piers C) is formed with a curved cylindrical body portion, A which, as shown, is curved in the direction of its length, and is of precisely the same external circumference asthe exterior of each one of the pipes A A, shown connected with said metal stand, the latter being formed or cast with tenon-like extensions Bflprojecting from each end of the body portion A", and adapted to fit snugly within the bores of thetwo pipe portions AA. These pipe portions, being fitted and slipped over the tenon devices B B", are securely fastened thereto by bolts or rivets 0 which pass through and through the tenon-like portions B and the surrounding portions of the tube A, and have their heads riveted or upset within the tapering holes in the pipes A, and so as to present surfaces at each end flush with the Preferably two sets of bolts or rivets are used for each connection, each set or pair being arranged diametrically opposite to others, as this arrangement of the holes and securing bolts or rivets affords a perfect means of securing the tenons A to the pipes B without materially weakening the stock of either the tenons or the tubes, as against the tensional strain to which the track is subject.

Where lengths of the tubing have to be united or coupled at points other than those at which the supporting couplers A are located, I employ simply internally-arranged splicing-cores-such as seen at I, Fig. 5-that fit for one-half of their length into each of the adjacent tube-pieces A A, the said splicingcores and tubes being bolted or riveted together by a series of bolts, 0', with countersunk and flush heads, as already explained of the splicedjoint. (Shown atFig. 3.) It will be seen that with such spliced joints, as represented at Figs. 5 and 6, and with such couplings and supports at each of the piers, as represented at Figs. 3 and 4, the sheaves of an ordinary conveying-machine (such, for instance, as seen at J, Fig. 4) will have always aperfectly smooth continuous and tubular track over which to travel lengthwise of the road, and upon which to swivel or vibrate more or less laterally, as all conveying-machines with depending loads or buckets are apt to vibrate or sway.

In the modification shown at Fig. 7 the metallic stand A is made much lower than that seen at Figs. 3 and 4, and the sheave J of the conveying-machine is provided with a safetyguard composed, as seen, of the wheel t, havinga grooved periphery, and adapted to travel nearly in contact with the lowermost portion of the cylindrical part A of the stand,which, as before explained, constitutes a part of the continuous track or tubular railway.

Instead of having the ends of the tubes adjacent to the supporting-stands at the top of each pier secured to stationary curved coup.- ling-stands, as shown at A Figs. 3 and 4, they may be secured to the core-like portions B of a stand, B*,' such as seen at Figs. 8 and 9, and which has a cylindrical shank or spindle portion, Z, mounted to turn freely axially within a metallic stand, 0 bolted to the top of the pier, the said shank portion Z, whileturning freely within the metal stand 0 being confined endwise therein, so that it cannot slide or in any manner move to change the line of the tubular railway in a horizontal direction. By means of such a construction and arrangement the tubular rails extending from each side of the supporting coupler device B B" will be free to sag more or less first at one side and then at the other side of the bearingas the loaded carriages may in succession travel up toward the supportingstand B and away from said stand, and thus relieve both the rail and its connections at the supporting-stand from some of the strain to which these parts might be subjected under the modification or construction shown at Figs. 3 and 4. The best form, however, of this lastmentioned modification of my invention I have shown at Figs. 10 and 11, where a hollow cylindrical or spindle-like portion, Z formed or provided at each end with circular flanged portions m is mounted journal-like in a metallic bearing -box or pillow-block, such as seen in top and end view at Fig. 12, and which is supposed to be securely bolted to the sup porting-pier of the structure. In this form of tube-snpporting stand the same mode of union or connection between the four pieces B and the ends of the tubes A is employed; but the exposed central portion, B of the supporting-stand, and which forms a continuation of the cylindrical railway-surface, is supported wholly by the narrow neck-like part 0 (see Fig. 11,) and the grooved peripheral portion of the sheave of the conveying-machine is so proportioned to the part B that, as shown in the drawings, the sheave can rock or sway crosswise of the tubular railway to a much greater extent than in any of the other cases shown without danger of cominginto contact with the neck-like portion 0 which contact might obstruct the travel of the conveying-machine or tend to its derailment from the track.

Of course various changes may be made in some of the details of the structure without departing from the main feature of my invenstand and pier-top, or, if not compensated for, will cause comparatively a slight varia; tion in the amount of sag of each span or section of the track, and without seriously disturbing the conditions of either the piers or devices at the termini of the railway.

In the use of my improved contrivance, especially in the last-described form as to the supporting and coupling stands, no difference in operation will be caused by any settling or sagging out of level of the top of any pier, because the swivel-joints of the supportingstands will compensate or permit any such variation, and no difficulty can be encountered by any disturbance lengthwise in the fixtures and attachments of the railway. The continuous or endless track being not only tubular but perfectly cylindrical and smooth, and without its continuity broken, the conveying-machines will travel thereon with less wear and tear, both of the machines and of the track or tramway, than in the case of any tramway contrivance heretofore made that I know of. There being no abrupt or angular changes in the top surface of the roadway, the carriages will have less vertical vibratory movement or jumping in passing over the piers or points of support; and in view of the supporting-stands being slightly curved, and being supported by swivel attachments, the carriages will ride more easily than otherwise. Greater facility is afforded for a perfectly secure guard device or arrangement to prevent the derailment of any carriage, and any sway or rocking motion of the carriage on the tramway tends to wear both the rail and the sheave much less than in the contrivances heretofore made, on account of the perfectly cylindrical and smooth surfaceof the sheave-supporting surface.

Having now so fully explained my invention that those skilled in the art can make and use my improved tubular tramway, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An elevated tramway composed of tubular sections coupled together and arranged in spans suitably supported by piers, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a tubular tramway or elevated railway, the combination, with the tubular spans, of coupling and supporting metallic stands formed or provided with core-like devices which enter and are secured to the adjacent ends of the tubular spans, and which are sesupportingstands adapted to support the adcurely mounted on thetops of the road-piers, jacent ends of the tubular spans, as specified, substantially as and for the purposes set forth. and combined with supporting bearing-boxes I 5 3. In combination with the tubular rails or secured to the tops of piers, and turning freely 5 railway-sections, the metallic stands secured within said bearing-boxes, substantially as and to the piers, adapted to support the adjacent for the purposes herein set forth. ends of said tubular railway-sections, and In witness whereof I have hereunto set my made curved in vertical profile to correspond I hand this 1st day of December, 1884.

l ALEXANDER E. BROWN.

15,; substantially with the natural bend of the In presence of lo track, all substantially as hereinloefore set forth. GOTTLIEB GENDER,

4. In a tubular elevated tramway, metallic E. T. $GOYILL. 

